Arizona Senate candidate Richard Carmona apologized Friday for joking at a debate that the male moderator was “prettier” than Candy Crowley, the veteran female CNN journalist who moderated the presidential debate earlier this week.

"I tried to tell a joke to lighten the mood in a debate. I shouldn't have, and I'm sorry,” Carmona, the Democratic nominee, said in a brief statement to POLITICO.

Despite his apology, Carmona’s latest comments won’t help him fight off the narrative pushed by Republicans that he has issues with women. A brutal ad by his Republican opponent, Rep. Jeff Flake, features Carmona’s former female supervisor recalling the night when he angrily pounded on her apartment door while he was serving as U.S. surgeon general in the George W. Bush administration.

After a heated exchange during Thursday’s debate, 12News/KPNX-TV’s Brahm Resnik remarked: “Geez, now I know how Candy Crowley felt.”